Kudo's to Supervisor Fred Newlin and the Lewiston Town Board for being able to get their own deal with the Power Authority independent of the Power Coaltion.  They truly represent the people they were elected to represent. 

After reading the article below http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060102/1055372.asp (among other sources), I wonder how much better representation we would have had if we were represented by the Board of Supervisors instead of the Niagara County Legislature on this deal. 

Jim Sacco 

Lewiston, coalition could part ways

Town considers forming its own electric agency

By THOMAS J. PROHASKA
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
1/2/2006

LEWISTON - A long-simmering dispute between the Town of Lewiston and the other members of the Niagara Power Coalition may boil over this month, perhaps leading to the town's decision to set up its own municipal electric agency.

The coalition, headed by Niagara County Legislature Chairman William L. Ross, C-Wheatfield, is to meet Jan. 18 to decide whether all the members will join a single municipal distribution agency to handle the discount electricity the group won in negotiations with the New York Power Authority over terms of a new license for the Niagara Power Project.

The members include the county, the towns of Lewiston and Niagara, the City of Niagara Falls and the Lewiston-Porter, Niagara Falls and Niagara-Wheatfield school districts.

The 2006 county budget includes $290,000 to set up the joint agency.

Other members will contribute based on a formula that has yet to be settled, according to Lewiston Supervisor Fred M. Newlin II.

Most of the coalition members are taking electricity allocations for use in government buildings. Lewiston is the only one that has shown interest in channeling it to residential electric customers to reduce their utility bills.

Departing Councilman D. James Langlois said during a Town Board meeting Thursday that electric bills in Lewiston could be cut by 20 percent by using the six megawatts of Niagara power the town expects to receive.

"We'd be remiss if we didn't drop out and form our own [agency]," Langlois said. "It would be a lot cheaper and a lot easier than the Niagara Power Coalition says."

Ross said, "I respect Mr. Langlois, but I think he's wrong about it being cheaper."

Newlin said the town intends to keep about $600,000 from its $1.36 million Power Authority signing bonus if it chooses to set up its own electric agency.

Ross said, "Even though [the county government] is getting nine megawatts, I could never use it for residential. You'd get $1 off your bill."

Lewiston was the last member of the coalition to agree to the 50-year, $1 billion deal with the Power Authority, and the Town Board's lack of enthusiasm for the group's operations was obvious Thursday.

"Some of the ways it operates, we just don't understand," Newlin said. "They hold closed meetings when they shouldn't. We still haven't seen the checkbook. . . . Unless those practices change, we'll have to consider whether we want to remain a member of an organization that doesn't follow these basic principles of openness and accountability."

Ross said the Jan. 18 coalition meeting is to decide on the group's budget and what type of outside audit its books should undergo. He said they are being reviewed by Brown & Brown, a Niagara Falls accounting firm.

"I don't want a superficial audit. I want an in-depth audit," said Ross, who took over the coalition chairmanship in March. "It was a back-pocket operation. I want it to be a first-class operation."

Departing Councilman Daniel F. Kilmer questioned the need for the coalition, which was set up a decade ago under the leadership of Niagara Falls Board of Education member Mark S. Zito. "Buffalo jumped on the bandwagon late and got a ton of cash without an attorney," Kilmer said. "I still think this whole setup was a setup. . . . This eight-year process Mark Zito put together was unnecessary."

Ross said he offered to let Newlin and two school business managers, Don W. Rappold of Lewiston-Porter and Kerin M. Dumphrey of Niagara-Wheatfield, conduct their own internal audit.

Newlin said he declined because he lacks auditing expertise and because he thought people would disregard anything he found that reflected badly on Zito. "It's no secret Mark Zito's not on my Christmas list," Newlin said.